Toyota: I have a 2010 Toyota Sienna LE and the interior lights

Resolved Question:

I have a 2010 Toyota Sienna LE and the interior lights (courtesy and vanity mirror) do not work. The car has been to Toyota dealers for service on this problem three times (once in Washington DC area and twice in Grand Rapids,s MI). Other than replacing the fuse, including increasing from original 5 amp to 10 amp fuses, they have not been able to find a problem. After replacing the fuse, the lights will work for two or three days then the fuse blows again. They say nothing shows up on their meters. They say all of the door switches and master dashboard switch appear to be okay.

What is the likely cause and what different things can the mechanic try to eliminate the fuse blowing problem? No interior lights working is a real problem at night.

I do not have the original fuse. I checked the owner's manual and it identifies fuse position #7 as "Dome" and the circuit includes "personal/interior lights, vanity lights, door courtesy lights, luggage compartment light, engine switch light, trip information display". None of these lights work except the trip information display does work. The trip information display has continued to be lite without any problem even if the other lights are no longer working. The manual says the fuse size is 10A so I was wrong when I said the original fuse was a 5 amp fuse. The fuses that I have installed are BUSS brand fuses...ATM-10.

When the fuse has been replaced, it hasn't blown immediately. The lights have worked for 2-4 days and then all of a sudden they no longer work.

OK it is the dome fuse and it's a 10A fuse that's what I though. Did you try replacing the interior bulbs that go out when this condition happens? If you haven't done so already let's start with the very basic items.

OK at this point I will say start by replacing all the interior bulbs. and I will opt out and let other experts share their input because I think this is the kind of problem that has to be diagnosed in person and not in this format because I will only be throwing ideas and this will take a very very long time to confirm if each idea works or not.

How will I receive other experts input? I can't leave my computer on this site indefinitely and you indicated earlier that you could not respond to my personal email.

I understand and agree with you that diagnosis in person is the logical way, but I was hoping for ideas for the mechanic to check (eg. replace all bulbs). Since they have already checked the bulbs on previous attempts to fix the problem, I would like to have other options for them to try.

Would appreciate receiving some ideas that I can offer the Toyota mechanic as things to check beyond what he has already done...he has replaced the fuse on three different occasions, checked the various switches, checked the bulbs (did replace one the first time) and says that his meter(?) does not show any shorts in wiring.

I just looked through the complete wiring diagram of your interior lights on this 10 amp "dome" fuse.

There is a red wire that goes from this fuse that powers up ALL of these interior lights on your vehicle. The problem is either going to be this red wire is shorted to ground or one of these bulbs/sockets are shorted to ground popping this fuse assuming nothing was added after market to this circuit.

Below is a COMPLETE list of all bulbs on this circuit. Have your mechanic check ALL of these bulbs and sockets for possible problems. One thing that can be done is to remove all of these bulbs and see if the fuse continues to blow while driving it with the interior light switch turned on. If not, then insert one bulb at a time until the fuse blows. The last bulb that was inserted causing the fuse to blow is likely to be where the issue is with the socket.

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